The old woman watched Ning fight 9 corpses, completely horrified the whole ti that he would die. She expected the mark of death on his forehead to solidify itself at any mont and for him to be dealt the killing blow by one of the soldiers.
She was off to the side now, pulled away by a few of the villagers who had co to protect her. They were afraid she was going to be attacked.
"Go help that child," she said. "He will die if you don't do anything."
Her words ca out haunting and yet not a single person there wanted to help them. Not a single person wanted to go against an Earl and have their entire village raided by the empire a few weeks later.
As bad as it was to do it, they averted their gaze.
"Why are you all just standing here? Go! He will die at this rate!" the old woman said, frantic at every word. And yet, no one moved.
"Grandma Usha. That's an Earl. We can't go against his order. He must've co here for a reason," one of the younger n surrounding her said.
"He said the girl is a criminal, mother Usha," another man said. "She must've done sothing bad."
The various other people began trying to make excuses to the old woman. The old woman realized at that mont that no one there was going to help the young man at all.
'He's going to die,' she thought. 'This is what I saw. That mark of death was for this, wasn't it?'
As she said those words, a familiar mory erged in her mind. She rembered the ti she had worked with the man in the past.
"You can see marks of death?" he had asked. "So you knew those bandits were going to die?"
"I knew they were going to die when you showed up," Usha said. "Their marks weren't as solid before you were here."
They had just finished killing a bunch of bandits that were hiding out in a forest camp. The man had a weird smile on his face.
"It's quite ironic that it happened when I arrived, isn't it?" he had asked.
"Why would it be ironic?" Usha replied.
"You know, because I am a-"
A shrilling scream brought the old woman out of her mories. She turned, looking toward the battle where she saw a horrifying scene.
Her mouth hung agape at the scene. Then, she heard another higher-pitched scream and realized this one ca from the house.
"Shara!" she realized. "Go help the them. If you won't help them, they'll—"
Her words were caught in her mouth when she saw what she saw next.
******
Ning created a barrier in front of him and yet the man moved to the side so quickly that Ning could barely notice it. He didn't have much ti to create another barrier and instead had to dodge.
Worse, his energy was lowering by the minute as well. He feared that very soon, he would have to bring out the replenishnt potion and drink it. The better one cost around 15 or 16 points, but he only had 3 points at the mont, so he couldn't help it. He would have to go with the minor one.
Ning was glad he had used the Agility improving scroll on himself just the day prior. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to last this long against this man. His reaction speed was all that was saving him at this mont.
Ning saw the man move again and created a barrier in front of him. It wouldn't stop him, but it caused the man to go around the place, which gave Ning enough ti to-
The barrier shattered and the sword slashes past Ning's left arm. The man hadn't gone around and had instead co directly for him straight on. He had realized that he could break the barrier.
'Shit!' Ning thought, quickly moving to the side. He tried to hold up his spear but found it difficult. He looked at his arm and realized the slash had cut him to the bone itself.
What felt cold until now flared with pain at that very mont.
"Arrhg!" Ning couldn't help but scream after feeling a pain that he hadn't felt in hundreds of thousands of years.
Ning heard the ssage from the system, saying sothing. But he couldn't focus on it due to the pain, nor could he read it, despite the blue hologram, nearly covering his entire vision. He tried to ignore the pain as his life itself was in danger at the mont. He looked before him next and barely managed to see the next flicker of the man coming toward him. Because he had moved from behind the hologram, the movent wasn't so clear to Ning.
The Earl wasn't fast at this mont. He couldn't use his power consecutively in burst and had to wait a few seconds in between. Thanks to that, Ning thought he had enough ti to dodge.
But the pain had taken away most of his attention, and then the blue hologram had made it difficult to see the man's movent. So, even as he tried to dodge, the sword ca for him, attacking right where he had been wounded just now.
The sword slashed and Ning felt himself get slightly lighter. The coldness he felt in his arm was unreal. As though ti itself had frozen for him, he saw his left arm cut through entirely, falling lifeless to the side.
The Earl grinned at the sight and was about the return to attack when suddenly he heard a loud scream. His head turned instinctively to the sound and his eyes imdiately saw the massive structure that had appeared at the back of the house.
He watched in sheer disbelief at a 20-ter-tall spike of ice that had grown out of the house, completely encasing the house itself within it.
He stared at the ice with a frown. Des' power hadn't been to create ice. So it had to be the girl. And she had created so much ice at once.
'Des...' the man thought, realizing that his subordinate had been caught in the ice. Was he okay? What had happened to him?
He heard movent and turned right as a spear ca for his face. His feet moved at once, pushing him far to the back but his reflexes weren't fast enough to dodge the spear entirely. He slamd back onto his soldiers, who dampened his speed, tumbling them all down like dominos. He stopped and at that very mont felt pain blossom on his face.
He scread in pain, feeling the pain unlike any he had ever felt before. He felt hot blood drip from his face, landing drop by drop on the ground next to him.
He touched his face through his gauntlet and felt stinging pain around his eyes. He tried to blink, but only one of his eyelids worked.
When he looked down at his palm, he understood that he could only see from one of his eyes.
His other eye, the left eye, had been cut through.
He was now one-eyed.
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